For a while now, I've been thinking about voting. A while ago, I made the fairly logical conclusion that there is no point in voting. I think the reasons for this are fairly simple: one vote does not make any difference. And although if many people came to the same conclusion, there certainly could be problems, one person is not everyone. Pretty much the same arguments are made in the latest Freakonomics column in the New York Times.
However, recently I've begun to realize that I was in error. The logical error in my previous thinking, and also in the Freakonomics column, is that no man is an island. If I don't vote, then my attitudes about voting may influence my friends to not vote. If they don't vote, maybe it's not a huge deal, but then they might influence their friends not to vote. Eventually, if the "not voting" meme spreads, this becomes a big deal, capable of influencing elections at any level. What I've described is a simple network that acts by contagion. I think the notion of contagion is what is missing from the Freakonomics column.
One might say that the best thing to do is to say you voted, but don't actually vote. While that seems pretty logical, I think honesty is persuasive. The "voting" meme will be more powerful if people actually honestly believe in it.
Posted by ahyatt at November 6, 2005 10:05 AMI was thinking about voting today. Currently I am not registered to vote in NYC and have been urged to switch my registration so that I can participate. But I believe that voting costs more to me than it benefits me. My vote is of infinitesimal value while to vote costs me time and money to go out of my way in order to submit my vote.
The more I think about it, the more I believe that what really matters is political and social engagement. By not voting I release myself from needing to engage in politics enough to arrive at a sensible personal conclusion worthy of casting as a vote. I suppose this means I have more time for smaller issues closer to home but in the longer term I think this puts me out of touch with the population at large if I am not spending at least a little time thinking about what concerns more people than just me.
Another anti-voting thought I have is that after reading so much history I feel that hardly anything comes down to the individual effect of a participant in democracy.
Posted by: Brody on November 6, 2005 05:41 PM